


Alicia Zimmermann's Other Son

by Coppercurls



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alicia Zimmermann will throw down, Bitty's Valentines, Found Family, Gen, Not literally, but y'know, she loves her son Shitty a lot, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 05:05:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13756920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coppercurls/pseuds/Coppercurls
Summary: When Alicia learns that Jack's best friend has a frankly horrible family, she decides to welcome him into her own.





	Alicia Zimmermann's Other Son

Alicia and Bob were fond of winters. Once Bob retired from full-time hockey, January became their month for family, and once Jack was off in the Q, and now his second year of college (a one- year intermission between the two spent in quiet time just together), well, Alicia and Bob enjoyed their annual, month- long honeymoon. 

They were in the middle of some… typical honeymoon activities, enjoying their stay in their Californian home, when Alicia got a call from Jack. 

They struggled to catch their breath before accepting the call.

“Hey, honey, what’s up?” Alicia asked, snuggling her head into Bob’s shoulder.

There was a pause on Jack’s end before he responded. “Am I… interrupting something?”

Bob bit back his laughter, but he was shaking with it. Alicia elbowed him. “Not at all. How are you? Is everything okay?”

“Oui, maman, I’m fine.” There was another pause, but this one seemed thicker. “I, um, I had a question for you. And papa, actually, if he’s around.”

“Hey bud, I’m here too. What’s up?” Bob said, resting his cheek lightly on Alicia’s head. 

“So, I…” Jack trailed off again, and Alicia met Bob’s eyes. This was going to be a hard conversation. “I know I’ve… not always been the best son.” He kept talking over both of his parents’ noises of disagreement. “But you guys, you’ve always been there for me, without a question. How do you do that? How come you didn’t just take me for a failure and give up?”

Alicia sucked in a breath. She felt Bob tense beside her. “You’re our son, Jack,” Bob said, and Alicia nodded emphatically, even though she knew Jack couldn’t see her. “It’s our job to lead you how we can to the best life for you. I’m just sorry we failed you for so long.”

“Honey, you’ve never been a failure, and you’re never going to be. We just want you to be happy.” Alicia was surprised to find her voice shaking a little. Bob’s arm pulled her closer, and he nuzzled his nose in her hair.

Jack was silent again, and Alicia held her breath waiting for him to respond. Finally, he did. “Why don’t all parents think like that?”

Alicia was shocked into silence, and as she met Bob’s eye, she saw her expression mirrored there. “Has something happened?” Alicia asked. 

“No, it’s just,” Jack paused, “the way Shitty talks about his family sometimes. It’s got me thinking.”

“You don’t think he’s unsafe with his family, do you?” Alicia asked.

“No, no,” Jack responded quickly. “He just doesn’t seem to like them much, and it sounds like the feeling is mutual. He got back to the Haus early during break, like, really early. I’d be surprised if he stayed through Christmas day.”

Alicia looked at Bob’s frown and recognized the protectiveness there from the days he’d get in fights for his teammates, but when he spoke, it was with the practiced lightness he saved for the press. “Well, you make sure he knows he has a home with us, yeah? Whenever he doesn’t want to be with his family.”

“We loved when he visited over the summer, he’s welcome with us anytime,” Alicia added.

Jack hummed in agreement. “Merci maman, papa,” he said, and it seemed like he was done with that train of thought.

“You should invite him for spring break!” Bob said.

“Ohhh,” Alicia said, excited. “We could show him the sights!”

“We’ll have to see about hockey,” Jack said, but she could hear the smile in his voice. 

“How are classes?” Bob asked after a moment of silence.

Jack started talking, rambling really, about a history class he was in. Alicia tried to follow along, but she had never been much for history, and it seemed like Bob had already given up with comprehension and just listened to the cadence of Jack’s voice. About fifteen minutes into an explanation on the culture and the draft in the years leading up to the Vietnam war, Alicia couldn’t hold it in any more, and she started to giggle. Bob fed off her laughter and soon they were gasping for air.

“Maman? Papa? Are you okay?”

This of course, just made them laugh harder, so hard that they didn’t stop until there was a cacophony of sound from Jack’s end of the call, followed by conversation they could hear clearly even though it was obvious the phone was no where near the two holding the conversation. 

“Shitty what the hell?”

“Don’t play bro, I know you love our impromptu cuddle sessions.” Alicia swore she could hear Jack’s eyeroll. Or maybe that was just his grumbling.

“I was on the phone with my parents! Where’d it go?”

Alicia and Bob listened to the following scramble with laughter. Just a few moments later, they heard Shitty shouting into the phone.

“The illustrious Zimmermanns! How are you on this fine and frigid January day?”

Alicia laughed and responded, “We’re in Cali, no frigidness for us,” once she realized that Bob was shaking too hard with repressed laughter to say anything. 

“I wish I was in California,” Shitty lamented over Jack’s protests. “No class, no hockey, just relaxation.”

A sudden scuffle broke out with Jack shouting “Give me back my goddamn phone!” and Shitty’s reply of “Death before dishonor!” Alicia buried her face in Bob’s neck as they laughed, and she felt a sudden surge of warmth. 

Jack apparently won control of the phone, then hushed Shitty’s wails by saying, “I’m putting it on speaker, asshole.” There was a break of static. “Hello again Maman, Papa, I’m sorry for that interruption.”

“No problem, Jack,” Bob said. “How are you, Shitty?”

Shitty started off on a rant about a professor of his who seemed to be purposefully ignoring the girls in his class when they had questions or comments. It was apparently a class he and Jack shared, because soon Jack had joined in to complain about their misogynistic professor. 

Finally, Alicia had to interrupt. “Shitty, hun, Bob and I were just talking to Jack about the two of you coming up to Montreal over break.”

“I’d love to Mrs. Zimmermann!”

“I’ll look up flights, Maman. Now, go back to your vacation, I’ll talk to you soon,” Jack said.

Once the customary farewells were in place, they ended the phone call. Alicia looked up at Bob. “I hope you know we’re adopting that boy.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything different.”

~~~

Alicia felt her heart nearly explode with pride when B. “Shitty” Knight walked across the stage to claim his diploma. The sensation repeated itself minutes later, as Jack, her Jack, her little boy, did the same. She was worried that she and Bob would lose their voices from the cheering they did, though it probably wasn’t even heard over the hockey team’s cheers.

After the ceremony, Alicia found herself in a group hug with Jack and Bob, but once she had pulled away and properly congratulated her son, she started looking around for Shitty.

“Where’s my other son? I need to hug him too,” Bob said, mirroring Alicia’s thoughts.

Jack’s face dimmed momentarily. “His family is here.”

Alicia frowned. Over the last two years, she had become one of Shitty’s main confidantes. Even without that, what she’d heard through Bob and Jack was enough to know that Shitty would not be enjoying himself very much if his family was here. She met Bob’s eyes before they started scanning the crowd.

It didn’t take long for her to find him, surprisingly, and she took off as fast as she could while still maintaining elegance. Bob and Jack were close behind her. As soon as she was close enough, ignoring what appeared to be the Knights, she pulled Shitty into a bone-crushing hug, and she felt Jack and Bob’s arms encircle him too. 

“Ah, B-” Bob let out a whoop and hugged them tighter- “These must be the, ah, entertainers, you’ve told us about.”

Alicia bristled, but she knew how to deal with this kind of wealth. She forced her way out of the hug and offered her hand to the man who was looking at her and her family most disdainfully. “I’m Alicia,” she smiled at him warmly. “And how do you know Shitty?”

The man sniffed. “I’m his grandfather.”

“Pleasure,” she said, grasping his hand just barely tightly enough to be aggressive. “I didn’t realize Shitty-” the man sniffed again- “was going to have company for the ceremony.”

Here, Shitty jumped in, and Alicia realized that both Jack and Bob were standing as intimidatingly as possible. Alicia bit back a smirk. “Oh, yes, Mrs. Zimmermann, once they heard about my new haircut they just couldn’t stay away.”

Alicia beamed at him. “It does look fantastic. You know what I was thinking?” Shitty hummed in response. “A piercing! On your ear, just here.” She poked his ear, indicating a tragus piercing. She let her hand rest on his cheek after. “It would add a dashing factor.”

Shitty grinned. “That sounds fantastic, Mrs. Zimmermann.” A man who looked about the age to be Shitty’s father coughed obnoxiously. 

Alicia looked over to him with her eyebrows raised high. A woman who looked to be his grandmother spoke. “B-” Jack coughed- “we must be going soon if we are to make our reservation. Should we find your, um, your friend?”

“Lardo?” Shitty asked.

“His girlfriend?” Jack asked.

Shitty’s grandfather sniffed again.

“She said she’d meet us by the pond, she didn’t think we’d be able to find each other in the crush of people.”

“We wouldn’t want to keep you from your dinner,” Alicia said, smiling at Shitty’s grandmother.

“Of course!” Shitty said. “You should join us.”

“I wouldn’t want to overwhelm the restaurant with a changed group size. They must be busy today,” Shitty’s father said.

Shitty’s face darkened, but when he turned to Alicia she simply smiled at him and engulfed him in another hug. “Just text if you need a rescue,” she whispered before she pulled away and ruffled his hair.

Out loud she said, “It was so good to meet you all, we’ll have to meet again. Shitty, give me a call in the next few days, so we can figure out when you’re visiting this summer.”

“Absolutely, Mrs. Z.” He hugged Jack again. “Have a nice dinner you guys.” 

The group walked away, and after she was sure they were out of range, she looked at Jack and Bob and said, “That was unpleasant.”

Instead of laughing, her boys just nodded grimly.

~~~

Alicia heard her phone ring as she was trying to piece together a 5,000- piece puzzle. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t just a little bit thankful, but when she saw who was calling, she felt her brow furrow just a little. 

“Hey Shitty,” she said cheerfully, trying to keep her worry out of her voice. “I thought we had just talked the day before yesterday? Is everything alright?”

“Hiya, Mrs. Z! Everything is all good! Just was going to ask for some advice. Maybe more of a favor,” Shitty said.

“Of course!” Alicia let herself relax into an arm chair and made sure her tea was still within reach. “Didn’t you just quit the corporate job though? I thought you’d be living it up right about now.”

Shitty chuckled kind of nervously. “Um, yeah, I was. Lardo just has this super big deadline next week, and my living it up was distracting her. She softly kicked me out this morning.”

Alicia threw her head back and laughed. “Gosh, I remember having to do that with Bob a few times, especially one summer after he’d won the cup, god, I couldn’t get anything done.”

Shitty laughed too. “Was that when you were on the creative team for To Swallow the Sun? I loved that one.” She and Shitty talked for a few minutes on some of the more symbolic themes of that movie, especially the linking of Alicia’s character with her foil character through color symbolism. After a while though, Shitty coughed lightly and said, “But, yeah, I was wondering if I could come up and visit you and Bob for a bit? I don’t want to intrude at all, though, so feel-”

Alicia cut him off. “Of course you’re coming up here. We can’t have you puttering mindlessly around New York for a week. When’s Lardo’s deadline?”

“The twentieth,” Shitty said. “I’m really proud of her, you know? Like, not only is she designing sets for the Met, but she’s helping to animate a commercial now? How is she so amazing? How did I get so lucky Mrs. Z?”

“You deserve it, hun,” Alicia said with a light laugh. “But what I was going to ask, do the two of you have Christmas plans for after that?”

“Not really. Her parents don’t celebrate it.” The rest of the explanation was unspoken, but Alicia knew the story already. Last December, just over half a year from when Shitty graduated at Harvard, Shitty and Lardo had announced that they were saving for a house, and that they had gotten married in a private ceremony with only a handful of witnesses. Shitty’s family, unsurprisingly, had objected. Within the next hour, things escalated to Shitty renouncing the Knight name and walking out, his father shouting behind him that he wasn’t welcome anyways until he divorced Lardo (though his father hadn’t used her name, but a rather unsavory word). Shitty seemed completely fine with this and had officially changed his name to B. Duan. “We’re going to their place for New Years though, but that’s in February. Since Lardo’s finishing this up, and I’m not starting at the non-profit until January 2nd, we were just going to hole up for a while.”

Alicia smiled. “As nice as that sounds, I don’t think you can get away with visiting that close to Christmas and not celebrate with us.”

“Really, Mrs. Z, we don’t want to interrupt your holiday-”

Again, he was cut off. “I just booked your tickets. You’re flying out in about five hours, you’ll get your confirmation in a minute. I sent Lardo hers, she’ll fly up the afternoon of the 21st.” Alicia set her laptop aside with a satisfied smirk. “I’ll pick you up then, see you soon!” She hung up before he could protest. 

Before returning her attention to the puzzle, however, she had to make one more phone call.

“Hi, Jack, baby. Is Eric there? Okay, I just wanted to let you know about some small plan changes. Do you mind company for Christmas?”

~~~

The residents and visitors of the Zimmermann household woke on Christmas morning to fluffy snowflakes dancing down from the skies. And if those people were still asleep at 7:12, they also woke to the shrieks of children.

Alicia, however, was already awake and was trying to coerce her grandchildren into letting their parents sleep for just a little longer. She had succeeded up to that point through hot chocolate.

Tanya and Elanor, the five- year- old twins, were the shrieking culprits. While Alicia had turned away from them to stop little Eric (a four- year- old) from climbing onto the counters, the twins had snuck out of the kitchen and into the fire-place room, where the sight of their gifts seemed to excite them. Alicia sighed lightly, but she smiled regardless, she herded the rest of the children into the fire-place room and said, “Okay, now, before we can open any of these, we’ve gotta wake up your parents and grandpa.” Each child nodded seriously. “How’re we gonna do that?”

“Jump on ‘em!” Elanor said in a loud whisper. Everyone looked excited to do so, even little two- year- old Ali. 

First they crept up on Bob, and though Alicia had noticed him hurriedly close his eyes again when she opened the door, he was pretending to snore. He woke with a shout, and retaliated by tickling every kid he could reach, until Damien (two-years-old) accidentally kicked him in the face. 

Next, with Bob’s help, they leapt into Jack and Bitty’s room. Tanya and little Eric started complaining when they saw the two of them were already awake.

“Shhhhhhh,” said Ali. “We still gotta get Uncle B and Aunt Lardo.” She tried to glare at the older kids. 

They snuck into the last room, all nine of them, and within moments, the five kids were on the bed tickling Shitty and Lardo mercilessly. Shitty dramatically fell out of bed, somehow managing to make sure all the kids stayed on the bed. “Betrayed!” he moaned. “Betrayed by my own blood! Betrayed by my favorite niece and nephew!” Shitty ruffled little Eric’s hair, and picked Ali up and swung her around.

Laughter filled the house as the group migrated back to the fire-place room, and later that day, after presents but before the Christmas dinner, Alicia sat wrapped up on her porch and watched her grandchildren, and her children (because she had adopted every one of those adults into her heart long ago) engage in an epic snowball fight. With the hand she wasn’t using to hold her tea, she reached out to let her fingers entwine with Bob’s. She loved the winter.

**Author's Note:**

> There you have it! This was my Bitty's Valentine for tumblr user paritano, and I hope they + everyone else enjoys!
> 
> I might play around in this universe more, so please, leave your thoughts!


End file.
